Publishers turn away from Facebook Instant Articles

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Many publishers are relying less on Facebook's Instant Articles, the platform's fast-loading mobile news pages, according to an analysis by the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR).

Of the 72 publishers that partnered with Facebook for the 2015 launch of Instant Articles, 38 did not post a single Instant Article on January 17, 2018, implying that over 50% of launch partners have abandoned the feature. Although this single-day analysis may not be entirely representative of Instant Articles usage, it still signals that many launch partners aren't fully utilizing the format.

Declining Instant Articles usage is especially problematic for Facebook as consumers increasingly turn to social media sites to get their news. In 2017, 67% of consumers said they get their news from social media sites, up from 62% in 2016, according to Pew Research Center. Less Instant Articles content hurts Facebook's ability to capitalize on this shift, as many web users won't read articles that take too long to load.

There are three main points of frustration publishers have with Instant Articles:

Low monetization.Many publishers have claimed that the revenue they generate through Instant Articles visits doesn't measure up to the money they earn when users visit their sites directly, according to Digiday. The Guardian and The New York Times both stopped producing Instant Articles content in 2017, citing low monetization as a major concern.

Less control over ads.Facebook imposes certain restrictions on publishers' placement of ads in Instant Articles — publishers can post just one ad for every 350 words, and ads cannot exceed 15% of content, for example. On their own sites, publishers have full control over ad density and implementation.

Lack of data.Some publishers have complained that they received limited information on how they could track and learn about their Instant Articles readers, per Digiday. By distributing less Instant Articles content, and instead focusing on distributing content that draws users to their own sites, publishers don't need to worry about going through an intermediary to access user data.

It's not all bad news for Instant Articles. From August 2016 to November 2017, the overall proportion of posts published as Instant Articles hadn't significantly declined, typically hovering at 40%, according to CJR. Moreover, in June 2017, Facebook announced that it grew the number of Instant Articles publishers by 25% to 10,000 in the prior six months alone.

This means that Instant Articles isn't necessarily facing a mass exodus, but rather, Facebook is struggling to retain more prominent, legacy publishers. This doesn't bode well for the company's goal of remaining a top traffic referral source for publishers, especially as it moves to de-prioritize publisher content in the News Feed.